Commonsense COVID Response

Podcast - Bob Zadek Show

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Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Hewitt – perhaps the most influential libertarian elected official in the country – joins me this Sunday to talk common sense policy at the county level that he is pushing in Riverside.

We will discuss how Supervisor Hewitt has fought back against special interests and all-powerful unions in California to take office, and what he’s doing to get people back to work in his area while minimizing new infections and deaths from COVID-19.

The California Health & Safety Code lays out the functions and duties of local health officers, which include issuing orders to other governmental entities to take “any action any action the local health officer deems necessary to control the spread of the communicable disease.”

In most counties that has meant strict bans on group gatherings, as well closures of schools, churches, and “non-essential” businesses. Furthermore, the law grants broad discretion to health departments to “(a) Quarantine or isolate and disinfect persons, animals, houses or rooms, in accordance with general and specific instructions of the department.” In the past, this has been interpreted to apply to those with symptoms, but since COVID we’ve accelerated into the Brave New World where even healthy people showing no symptoms of illness are forced to shelter-in-place. When will it end?

Supervisor Hewitt and his fellow supervisors in Riverside recently voted to ask the county Public Health Officer, Dr. Cameron Kaiser, to rescind his orders mandating face coverings and closing certain schools. Dr. Kaiser complied with the request – showing that some power still resides in the people and their elected officials.

Finally, we will discuss how else we can effectively restore our liberties, and what Jeff’s experience can teach other libertarians seeking to get elected to local or regional office.

Don’t miss it.

Links:

• https://supervisorjeffhewitt.com/

• Supervisor Jeff Hewitt - Facebook

• Jeff Hewitt shows libertarians how to win – Press Enterprise

• It Might Be the ‘Heart of the Resistance,’ but California Is Not Its Own Nation-state — Reason.com, Steven Greenhut, 4/12/19

• California Declares Independence From Trump’s Coronavirus Plans — Bloomberg

• Can this Riverside County Libertarian make a fringe party mainstream? - Los Angeles Times

Related Shows:

• Cliff Maloney, Jr. on Young Americans for Liberty’s Plan to Reshape the Political Landscape, 6/17/2018

• Did California Just Declare Itself a Nation-State?, with Frank Buckley, April 23, 2020

• John Tamny on Experts vs. the Wisdom of Markets, with John Tamny, May 10, 2020

• Prime time for the PRIME Act, with Rep. Thomas Massie, April 30, 2020

Power to the States: How Federalism 2.0 Can Make America Governable Again By Zadek, Bob Buy on Amazon

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